1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and an image processing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, there has been known a technique for estimating, on the basis of two images, changes in the position and attitude of a camera which has taken those images. According to this technique, a plurality of points that are determined to be shown in both of the two images are extracted, the correspondence between these points is acquired, and the points are then specified as corresponding points. A fundamental matrix is calculated on the basis of the corresponding points, and changes in the position and attitude of the camera are estimated on the basis of the fundamental matrix. The use of a robust estimation technique such as random sample consensus (RANSAC) for the calculation of the fundamental matrix has been disclosed in, for example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2007-256029. In RANSAC, eight corresponding points are extracted at random from among a large number of corresponding points, and temporary fundamental matrices are calculated. For example, the distance from an epipolar line is used as an index to evaluate each of the temporary fundamental matrices, so that particular errors of the corresponding points and the influence of a dynamic subject included in images are excluded. Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2007-256029 has also disclosed a technique for repeating the process from the calculation of the fundamental matrix to the estimation of changes in the position and attitude of the camera and thereby determines most probable changes in the position and attitude.